Marlowe

• Directed by Neil Jordan
• September 24, 2022 (San Sebastián) / February 15, 2023 (United States)
• Based on the 2014 novel The Black-Eyed Blonde by John Banville (writing as Benjamin Black) and characters created by Raymond Chandler

In late ‘30s a detective is hired to find the former lover of a married heiress but all is not as it seems.

Liam Neeson as a hard boiled 1930s detective? Sure. Really it was him in the lead role as writer Raymond Chandler’s legendary brooding private detective character Philip Marlowe that convinced me. Not only can Neeson be a good tough guy, but he can actually act. Plus I was curious how they explained away the accent. He is one in a long list of individuals to portray the character in film or television.

Marlowe is based on the 2014 novel The Black-Eyed Blonde by John Banville writing as Benjamin Black because that is a thing writer’s still do. The film itself starts rather quickly and gets through an initial mystery rapidly before getting to the real story of the film. Mercifully the movie then slows up. This is the kind of story that needs to take its time while slowly peeling back the layers revealed by each clue.

I almost turned this off because it was moving at such a rapid pace. It was just stumbling and tumbling through the opening moments that I was starting to lose interest and then it hit the brakes and decided to take its time and focus on character development, dialogue, and story while creating a mood and a feeling.  I have read a bit on the film’s reception and if the opening is what stands out in people’s/critics’ minds then I perfectly get it. Once you move beyond the poor start Marlowe massively improves.

This is the kind of film you don’t get too often from a studio. So much is said-both literally and figuratively-in the dialogue. Characters feel each other out with words and responses. And everyone has something to hide in one way or another. We have the talents of Jessica Lange, Alan Cumming, Danny Huston, and Colm Meaney joining Neeson.

Neeson is great as the hardboiled Marlowe portrayed with a healthy distrust of everyone. He’s a tough guy but not scary. Neeson is paired with Diane Kruger as Clare Cavendish who hires him under the pretense of finding a missing lover. She is a bit…generic in her performance but not too bland. It’s been a while since I’ve seen Jessica Lange in anything. It was nice to see her return as, well, a bitch in the form of Clare’s mother Dorothy Quincannon. She’s an ice cold once on top actress who is bitter and angry with venom for just about everyone and everything in her life. 

Alan Cumming shows up as criminal Lou Hendricks and like the other characters stands out. There is no interchangeability of the lines and I was never left with the sense that nobody was given stuff to say to justify their participation or satisfy the actor’s ego.

Beyond Neeson what attracted me to Marlowe was the possibility of something like those old hard-boiled detectives from the 40s and 50s. A story built around those types of characters. And I got that more or less. Not perfectly but there is a magic from the time that you cannot duplicate. I will take close though which is what this has.

This has everything one can use to take you back to that era. Jordan and pals even go so far as to use smoking. When was the last time you saw somebody lighting up a cigarette in a movie? It’s not to the point where you’re wondering how they had enough cigarettes for the next day left in the country. Rather it is a casual and occasional thing.

Beyond that this is dripping in 1930s cool and style. From the music to the fashion to the vehicles. But it doesn’t wallow in it to remind the viewer of the setting. It is just enough to let you know. There is a restraint in what they show and how they use things.

It’s a twisting and turning story that’s a mystery, but more about the damaged individuals than it is anything else. I am not about the damaged people thing that fills movies today. These people are just damaged rather than in need of serious therapy to marginally function better if they were real. All in a drug running story that has been done a thousand times before. But it’s the execution here that’s special.

The detective in the slow burn mystery is not as popular as it once was. Think about the movies that make big money these days. This is not something that you watch to relax, but you need to pay a little bit of attention to. What’s said and what’s done and what it actually may mean is as significant as any surface level observation.

Marlowe is a nice modern throwback. It’s about characters in a mystery. Not action heavy but rather dialogue heavy. Not for everybody though.